The Witches’ Song, from Ben Johnson’s Masque of Queens, 1609

IN THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, renowned dramatist, poet and favorite of the royal court composed a series of masques for the court’s entertainment. A masque consisted of music, dance and acting, performed in a private setting featuring elaborate costumes, professional actors and elaborate stage design. The stage and costumes were often designed by renowned architects, in this case it was Inigo Jones.

For the Masque of Queens, Johnson drew heavily upon King James’ Daemonologie, which spoke of the practices, identification and prosecution of witches. Much of what we believe, what we have come to think of when we hear the word witch draws from this source, which influenced others who have reinforced the stereotypes, such as the witches of Macbeth in Shakespeare’s play.

The idea that witches danced in their rituals didn’t exist in England at the time. It was a Scottish and continental notion, which King James, who came from a a Scottish family, brought to England with the publication of the Daemonologie .

The English tradition had witches being solitary figures, shunning the society of others. With the Daemonologie, the coven became a part of the lore that influenced not only the idea of witches in literature and the arts, but in practice as well.

In Johnson’s play, the leader of the witches is described as “naked armed, barefooted, her frock tucked, her hair knotted and folded with vipers; in her hand a torch made of a dead man’s arm, lighted; girded with a snake.”

Today when we read sixteenth century verse, we tend to forget these pieces were often performed. In this instance, the case could be made that this is the song that taught witches to dance.

The Witches’ Song, from Masque of Queens

Ben Johnson (1572-1637)

1 WITCH.

“I HAVE been all day looking after
A raven feeding upon a quarter:
And, soone as she turn’d her beak to the south,
I snatch’d this morsell out of her mouth.”

2 WITCH.

“I have beene gathering wolves haires,
The madd dogges foames, and adders eares;
The spurging of a dead man’s eyes:
And all since the evening starre did rise.”

3 WITCH.

“I last night lay all alone
O’ the ground, to heare the mandrake grone;
And pluckt him up, though he grew full low:
And, as I had done, the cocke did crow.”

4 WITCH.

“And I ha’ beene chusing out this scull
From charnell houses that were full;
From private grots, and publike pits:
And frighted a sexton out of his wits.”

5 WITCH.

“Under a cradle I did crepe
By day; and, when the childe was a-sleepe
At night, I suck’d the breath; and rose,
And pluck’d the nodding nurse by the nose.

6 WITCH.

“I had a dagger: what did I with that?
Killed an infant to have his fat.
A piper it got at a church-ale.
I bade him again blow wind i’ the taile.”

7 WITCH.

“A murderer yonder was hung in chaines;
The sunne and the wind had shrunke his veins:
I bit off a sinew; I clipp’d his haire;
I brought off his ragges, that danc’d i’ the ayre.”

8 WITCH.

“The scrich-owles egges and the feathers blacke,
The bloud of the frogge, and the bone in his backe
I have been getting; and made of his skin
A purset, to keepe Sir Cranion in.”

9 WITCH.

“And I ha’ beene plucking (plants among)
Hemlock, henbane, adders-tongue,
Night-shade, moone-wort, libbards-bane;
And twise by the dogges was like to be tane.”

10 WITCH.

“I from the jaw’s of a gardiner’s bitch
Did snatch these bones, and then leap’d the ditch:
Yet went I back to the house againe,
Kill’d the blacke cat, and here is the braine.”

11 WITCH.

“I went to the toad, breedes under the wall,
I charmed him out, and he came at my call;
I scratch’d out the eyes of the owle before;
I tore the batts wing: what would you have more?”

DAME.

“Yes: I have brought, to helpe your vows,
Horned poppie, cypresse boughes,
The fig-tree wild, that grows on tombes,
And juice, that from the larch-tree comes,
The basiliskes bloud, and the vipers skin:–
And now our orgies let’s begin.”

Who are we?

THE POETS WERE THE ROCK STARS OF THEIR AGE. It was a time when people actually recognized the value of the written line. But reading is hard, and poetry fell by the wayside, only to be resurrected in popular song.
Even that was short lived. Lyrics stopped having meaning. People still wrote intelligent lyrics, they just stopped being mainstream for the most part.
WHAT THOUGHTS REMAIN TO BE THOUGHT? What lines remain unwritten?
We're certainly not the first to set poetry to music. But we decided why not do the fuck out of it? You can hear every song for free whenever you want, either here on the site, through YouTube or Bandcamp. We don't do this for the money or to get laid. We do this because this is what we do. We make music.
It's not that we don't have anything to ... Read More about Highbrow lyrics tossed into a cauldron of acid rock and dark folk potions

Catch us …

The albums

phantasmagoria

On Witches, Fairies, Ghouls and Goblins

ON JUNE 16th, 1816, Lord Byron opened a book titled Phantasmagoriana, which he and his house guests took turns reading from. From that night came Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and John Polidori’s The Vampyre, considered the first English vampire novel, and the precursor to Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Drawing from that idea, herein lies poems from Shakespeare, Yeats, Spenser, Kipling, Ben Johnson and others, set to music. Musical influences range from British folk and Irish traditional, to Black Sabbath, King Crimson and Jethro Tull.

From the fairies who ride wild in the moonlight, to the danse macabre, it’s a look back at a time when people weren’t so certain, weren’t so brave as to believe that what we see with our eyes is all there is. And told in the words of some of the greatest lyricists of their day.

echo

A Pagan Hymnal

Paganism is quite often a nature religion, following the natural cycle. The seasons that not only divide the year, but life as well. A suite of songs from the romantic poets, based on these quarters of the calendar, a bit of Wordsworth, a plethora of Rossetti, a brace of Shakespeare and others poets, romantic and otherwise.

exiles

Folk Tales of Heartache and Woe

A trip down the gutters of the folk tradition. Recorded in a haze of despair and expensive alcohol, fueled by heartbreak, some of the more obscure folk songs out there. And so we present a potpourri of songs and stories, from the tragic to the morbid, disturbingly funny to the heartfelt … all the human emotions tied up in a singly bizarre, folkish package.